Mu Mu's iPad mini Deskstand: simple, solid, sustainable

While TUAW has reported on a number of stands that are designed for the full-sized iPad, there's a dearth of designs for the iPad mini. Today I'll introduce you to a simple, but solid iPad mini stand from UK-based Mu Mu. The iPad mini Deskstand is priced at an extremely reasonable £20 and is an attractive addition to any desk or table top.

Design

The Mu Mu team is famous for designing beautiful accessories out of wood. As with the Slide 2.0 iPhone cases reviewed last year, the Deskstand is lovingly crafted out of laminated hardwoods. Other than the small anti-slide bumpers on the bottom of the unit, the Deskstand is nothing but wood. The Deskstand comes in three varieties: maple and walnut, walnut and maple, and walnut. In case you're wondering what the difference is between the first two options, maple and walnut features light maple wood on the top surface, while walnut and maple has dark walnut on top.

The design of the Deskstand is so simple I expect to see a lot of these made in high school wood shops soon. Basically, it's a roughly trapezoidal piece of laminated wood with two horizontal grooves in it. The front groove is where the iPad mini sits, the back groove can house Apple's Smart Cover for the mini.

Functionality

Surprisingly enough, I don't have an iPad mini that I could test the Deskstand with and my first-generation Kindle Fire was too chunky to fit into the slot. You'll just have to imagine what the mini looks like when placed into the Deskstand. I've included a few photos from the Mu Mu website in the gallery; the rest of the product photos are of the stand by itself.

Conclusion

While the Mu Mu iPad mini Deskstand is one of the first stands for the iPad mini that we've had the pleasure to use, it's certainly not going to be the last. It's an attractive, low-cost and simple solution for holding a mini in place on a desktop, and the use of sustainable hardwoods in manufacturing is a total win.

While we usually give away our review samples online, the Mu Mu iPad mini Deskstand and a Slide 2.0 case for iPhone 4/4S are on their way to San Francisco where they'll be given away to some lucky attendee at the TUAW Meetup on Friday night.